About TAT 2010
Thinking about 'Things' (TAT): Interdisciplinary Futures in Material Culture was a three-day international and interdisciplinary graduate student conference designed to explore material culture and the ways in which we create it, interact with it, use it, discard it, and study it. The conference took place May 10-12, 2010, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
The TAT conference sought to engage graduate scholars from multiple disciplines and to provide a venue for traditional papers as well as alternative media presentations (TATart). Participation was welcomed from all disciplines and interdisciplines including the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. Check back this summer for information about TAT 2011. For other inquiries, please email sarah@tat2010.com.
The TAT conference sought to engage graduate scholars from multiple disciplines and to provide a venue for traditional papers as well as alternative media presentations (TATart). Participation was welcomed from all disciplines and interdisciplines including the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. Check back this summer for information about TAT 2011. For other inquiries, please email sarah@tat2010.com.
| tat_2010_schedule_and_abstracts.pdf |
| tat_11x17_color_flyer.pdf |
TAT Keynote:
"Creating Space for Objects of Color"
by Dr. William S. Pretzer
Monday, May 10, 2010 ~ Rackham Amphitheatre ~ 3:30 PM
In orchestrating public interaction with material culture, public historians usually consider the object's original function and context, the environment in which it is now interpreted, characteristics of the anticipated audience, and the intended affective and educational goals of the presentation. In developing presentations of material culture associated with race, however, there is one additional, essential consideration. This is the creation of space--emotional, intellectual, interpretive, temporal, and physical--so that audiences with very different worldviews and histories can make sense of their encounters with the objects. This space can be as ephemeral as the rhythms of soul or hip-hop music or as concrete as a new museum building on the National Mall.
Dr. Pretzer is the Senior Curator for History at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
In orchestrating public interaction with material culture, public historians usually consider the object's original function and context, the environment in which it is now interpreted, characteristics of the anticipated audience, and the intended affective and educational goals of the presentation. In developing presentations of material culture associated with race, however, there is one additional, essential consideration. This is the creation of space--emotional, intellectual, interpretive, temporal, and physical--so that audiences with very different worldviews and histories can make sense of their encounters with the objects. This space can be as ephemeral as the rhythms of soul or hip-hop music or as concrete as a new museum building on the National Mall.
Dr. Pretzer is the Senior Curator for History at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Organizers
Sarah Conrad Gothie, PhD Student, University of Michigan
Program in American Culture & Museum Studies Program
sarah@tat2010.com
Kelly A. Kirby, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Department of Anthropology & Museum Studies Program
kelly@tat2010.com
Program in American Culture & Museum Studies Program
sarah@tat2010.com
Kelly A. Kirby, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Department of Anthropology & Museum Studies Program
kelly@tat2010.com
Image: Devonian Period diorama by George Marchand, University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History.